Written in 54 minutes.
Tuesday, October 16, 2000
Jake’s: Second Floor Hallway
Elizabeth’s fist hovered over the door, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to knock. Doubt mixed with wave of shame and embarrassment rolled through — this would be the first time she’d spoke to Jason since that awful scene in Kelly’s, and while she didn’t think Jason would force her to talk about it, it might be harder to push it aside.
She wasn’t very good at pretending around Jason.
Before she could make up her mind, the door was jerked open with an irritated Jason on the other side. “What are you waiting for—” He stopped, his expression immediately softening. “Oh. I didn’t know it was you. I could—” He paused. “I could see someone standing on the other side, not doing anything.”
Her cheeks heated, and Elizabeth folded her arms, her hands still balled into fists. “It’s fine. I—I wasn’t sure if you’d even be here. I saw your bike, but—I just—I didn’t know.”
“Do you—” He stepped back, gestured awkwardly towards the interior. “You can come in. Unless you need to go somewhere—”
“No, I can—I can—unless you have to—” She closed her eyes, let out an irritated huff. “This is so stupid. And awkward. For no good reason. You’re probably not sure what to say to me since I fell apart yesterday, and I’m freaking out because you saw me fall apart, and now I can barely look at you because I’m just trying to forget it—” She stopped, forced herself to look at him, her irritation ratcheting up when she saw the amusement in his eyes. “You’re laughing at me.”
“Not at you. At—you’re right,” he admitted. “I’m worried about you, but I don’t want to push. Especially if you don’t want to talk about it.” Jason tilted his head. “But you came here anyway, so whatever it is, it seems important.”
Relief spread so quickly that she nearly felt dizzy from the switch. Of course he understood. Jason always understood. “It is. Important, I mean.”
“Then come on in.”
Kelly’s: Dining Room
Emily swung her bag on the table, and sat across from Lucky and Nikolas. She’d called Nikolas to set up the meeting and had deliberately waited into the courtyard until she’d seen them both sitting at a table.
She wasn’t about to let herself be alone with Lucky — not with her anger still so close to the surface. Elizabeth had made it clear that she wasn’t ready to deal with it, and it wasn’t Emily’s place to force the issue.
“Em, I’m so glad you called—” Lucky began, leaning forward. “I need to talk to you, to make you understand—”
“This isn’t about yesterday,” Emily interrupted. “We’re not discussing it,” she continued when Lucky scowled. “And if you can’t respect that I don’t want to talk to you about it, then I’ll leave and tell Nikolas later. I’ll cut you out of this conversation entirely, Lucky.”
His expression soured and he leaned back, slouching in his chair. “Guess I’ve been convicted and sentenced to life already. You’re not even giving me—wait, wait—” He held out his hand when Emily shot to her feet. “Okay. Fine. I’ll accept your terms. On the condition that you’ll eventually hear me out. You’re my friend, too,” he reminded her.
Emily slowly lowered herself back into the chair, keeping her gaze steady on Lucky’s. “I don’t need to hear you out, Lucky. I know what I saw, and I don’t care about why. I just don’t. This isn’t a situation where I can stay neutral. Maybe Nikolas can. He wasn’t here. But I was. And I saw it. Push me again on this before I’m ready, Lucky, and I’m going to walk out that door and it’s the last you’ll hear from me.”
“Lucky agrees,” Nikolas said, before his brother could say another word. Lucky shot him a dirty look. “What’s going on? You said on the phone it was important. You were supposed to meet with Dara this morning. Is it—did it go badly or something?”
“You could say that.”
Jake’s: Jason’s Room
Jason rubbed the back of his neck, wincing as Elizabeth described the meeting Emily had had with Dara that morning. He wasn’t a man to look back or point out mistakes, particularly when the person knew they’d hadn’t handled a situation well. And he knew that Elizabeth and Emily had their own regrets how they’d handled finding Ted Wilson dead in a bed beside Emily that summer.
Elizabeth stood in front of him, twisting her fingers together, her expression pained, her eyes looking everywhere but at him. “Emily and I decided the best way to handle this is…to not handle it ourselves. Or at least not by ourselves. She’s telling Nikolas and Lucky because…well, it’s obvious. And I volunteered to tell you because she already feels stupid enough about this.”
“I wish you’d keep them out of it,” Jason muttered before he could stop himself, but he felt better when Elizabeth finally met his gaze and the corner of her mouth quirked up in a smile. “I know why you’re telling them but the last thing any of us need is them going off and handling it on their own.”
“Emily and I are hoping we can stop them because we’re telling you right away. And Emily’s making it clear to them if they do something without the agreement of all of us, she’ll never forgive them. We have to tell them — they’re in just as much trouble as Emily and I—and you might not care about that—”
“I don’t, and neither should you.” Jason folded his arms. “You both wanted to go for more help. You both recognized this was bigger than both of you, and you let yourselves be talked into making it worse—”
Elizabeth made a face. “Okay, well, listen, don’t let us off the hook, okay? Yes, in hindsight, our plan was horrible. But in the moment, it felt right. And I didn’t just go along with it, Jason. I agreed—because I didn’t know any better. Don’t treat me and Emily like we’re dumb girls, okay? We both went in, head first—”
“Okay, then all four of you are brainless,” Jason said, and she huffed, looked away. “You’re right, you didn’t know any better, and now Emily’s facing perjury if she gets on that stand and tells a lie. A provable lie. Didn’t Taggert’s sister know what was going on? She could flip on you.” When Elizabeth opened her mouth. “And don’t tell me that you have information on her. A cop’s murder is more important than extortion. Emily is the bigger target. Especially if they think they can get to me. How sure are you that Gia Campbell is going to keep her mouth shut?”
Elizabeth folded her arms again, arched a brow. “How long have you been holding that in?”
“What?”
“I knew you were irritated with us, I guess I just didn’t realize how much. And, okay, you’re right. On every level. We were brainless. Immature. And stupid. But in my defense, it was my first dead body,” she retorted. “And we screwed up. And this is why Emily was so eager to let me fill you in. Because she didn’t want you to be disappointed in her again.”
Jason scowled. “Don’t do that. Don’t come for me for help, and then get pissed at me because I’m pointing out the biggest problem in any plan we come up with. Gia Campbell is a problem. She knows the truth. Her brother’s a cop. Her loyalty is not to you. Or to Emily.”
Elizabeth sighed, some of the frustration fading. “I know. You’re right. You’re right. I’m sorry.” She sat on the edge of the bed, looked at her hands. “I know we screwed this up. And I get that we probably screwed it up so bad it can’t be fixed. I just—Emily was in trouble. We wanted to make it go away.”
“I know.” Jason sat next to her, and was relieved when she twisted to face him. “I know. When Emily needs you, you’ve got her back. I just…don’t know how we get out of any of it,” he told her. “Zander Smith is telling the truth when he says you put the body in his trunk. And the only person who links Zander to that cop is Gia Campbell. She saw him with the drugs, she saw him with the cop the night he went missing—”
“But she also saw him with Emily,” Elizabeth finished, “and if she leaves that out—she’s committing perjury, too. And has no reason to protect any of us unless Nikolas pays her off.” She paused. “You’re right. It doesn’t matter what any of us do. We can’t control her. And if she decided to go tell the truth and wash her hands of this entire nightmare, I wouldn’t even blame her.”
She met his gaze. “I’m sorry. I know I’m dropping an even bigger mess in your hands than it would have been even a month ago. I take accountability for letting Lucky and Nikolas convince us that it would be better to leave you out of it. They made us feel like we were protecting you. The last thing you need is to be associated with a dead cop.”
He reached for her hand. “I can handle it. I don’t have a reputation to protect, but you and Emily — you do. And I’m going to do whatever I have to so that this doesn’t ruin that. I promise. Give me a day or two to find out how serious this is — Dara might have been trying to scare Emily into saying something against me.”
“That’s true.” Elizabeth squeezed his hand, then released it and got to her feet. “Maybe it’s all a bluff. That would be the best option.”
Jason rose. “Do you have a ride home or—”
“Oh, Emily dropped me after dinner. She was going to pick me up after and take me back to my car at Charlie’s.”
“I can do that,” he offered.
Elizabeth brightened. “On the bike? We could take the long way.”
Jason grinned, then reached for the door. “Yeah, we can.”
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